Fishing for the ultimate frozen dinner in Maine

While his favorite cast iron skillet was heating up on the camp stove, Josh Sparks knelt on the ice to fillet the 13-inch brook trout he had just pulled from Lower Range Pond. We could have gone to his New Gloucester home to cook it, but he promised “it will never taste better than it does out here.”

Then he dropped a fat chunk of butter into the pan and pulled out a salt cellar filled with salt, pepper and a few other things – ground cumin and some garlic salt, left over from a recent Mexican night – and shook a little onto the fish.

Recipes for ‘fried anything’ and other fish-delishness

Smoked Smelts a la Merriman

This recipe comes from Ralph Merriman of Harpswell. He’s promised to make us some as soon as the smelts are really running. We can’t wait.

180 to 200 smelts, cleaned, heads removed

11/2 cups of peach, pear or apple jelly (he uses homemade from his orchard, peach is the best)

1/2 cup of seasoned salt (Merriman is a big believer in Lawry’s)

Ground black pepper to taste

Either vinegar or water to make the mixture a thin syrup consistency

Merriman says you can add any other seasonings you desire.

Put marinade and fish in a glass or stainless steel pot (not aluminum) or a large plastic food-safe bag (less desirable because the fins or bones might puncture the bag) and soak, refrigerated, overnight.

In the morning, take the smelts and carefully arrange them in your smoker without trying to wipe off any excess marinade.

Let them sit out long enough for the surface to slightly dry before you put them in your smoker.

I use fresh-cut applewood chips from the small branches I prune from my trees. It saves having to soak dried wood chips and I think the natural moisture from the wood enhances the final flavoring of the smoke.

Follow the directions for your smoker. I use a 30+ year-old Little Chief Smoker and it takes from 8 to 24 hours, depending on outside temps and fish size.

Merriman’s Secret for Fried Anything

Merriman isn’t that interested in anything but smelt caught on the Androscoggin in Brunswick – those state health guidelines suggesting no more than four meals per year from freshwater fish in the river aren’t exactly appetizing and since the smelts come up from the sea, there are no eating restrictions on them. So when he makes this fish fry in the winter, he generally uses smelts, but any fish will do.

The origin of this recipe is a bit fuzzy, but Merriman remembers that in his childhood, his family always went fishing with a bag of flour for frying up whatever they caught. At some point, the flour got left behind and he subbed in pancake mix. He’s never gone back.

1/2 cup of a ‘complete’ pancake mix; he uses Krusteaz right now, but Aunt Jemima comes into his rotation frequently

1 teaspoon of seasoning salt, Lawry’s is his preference

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper,

Any other seasoning you like, such as onion/garlic salt, dill, etc.

Butter for frying

Mix the dry ingredients in a plastic bag.

Pat fish reasonably dry, add them to the bag and shake. Don’t let them sit in the mixture or they will “cake up” too much. The just really need a good dusting. Fry on a medium-high heat, flipping once as they lightly brown on each side.

Let it cool for a few minutes and then take off the meat (eat the cheeks, you earned it).

Peel a medium baked potato (microwave is fastest/easiest way to get this).

Combine the trout, potato, some finely chopped/minced onion, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add an egg to bind the ingredients and mix well. Divide the mixture in half.

Make patties out of the mixture with a bit of mozzarella cheese in the center of each (or any cheese that melts well; this is optional, but Smith likes to incorporate cheese in as many fish dishes as possible).

In a frying pan with a bit of olive oil warm and brown the patties on both sides to melt the cheese and so the egg binding cooks through.

Enjoy!

One 14-inch trout serves two … unless you are REALLY hungry.

Josh Sparks’ Cusk Chowder with Maple Twist

When Sparks is in the mood for chowder, he goes hunting specifically for cusk, one of those fish that gets dubbed “the poor man’s lobster” because of its firm white flesh. He makes a classic chowder and then a spicy variation (see end notes).

Take six pieces of bacon and cut into small pieces, about an inch square. Let it heat up and then add 2 medium chopped onions and saute until the onions soften. (If the bacon isn’t fatty enough, add some butter.)

When the onions are softened, add 1/2 stick of butter, and 4 cups of chicken stock.

Peel and chop 5 potatoes into a good size to pick up on a soup spoon and add to mixture.

Peel and chop 2 carrots (optional, Sparks adds them for a little color).

Bring the stock to a boil, reduce heat and simmer vegetables for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Lay cusk fillets (about 2 pounds) on top of the chowder and let it simmer long enough until the fish begins to break up.

Add a can of evaporated milk if you have it (Sparks likes this instead of cream) and enough milk to bring the chowder to the desired consistency. Simmer without boiling for at least 30 minutes.

Ideally chowder sits outside to cool to bring the flavors together. Then it can be rewarmed when you’re ready to serve.

In the last 10 minutes of the warming process, stir in about 2 to 3 tablespoons of maple syrup. Real maple syrup, “not that fake stuff,” Sparks cautions.

For a spicy variation, sub in hot sausage for the bacon and add a diced up jalapeno with the onions.

Skip the syrup in this version, but if you’d like to add decadence in another manner, toss in a big handful of grated cheddar or mozarella cheese.

Josh Sparks’ Desirable Undesirable Baked Stuffed Fish Fillets

A lot of yellow perch and crappies end up tossed on the ice for eagles to pick over; they’re not the fish most ice fishermen and women are after.

But Sparks actively hunts for them – he thinks they are the best eating.

This recipe would work well with a whole fish as well, but most of the perch and crappies he catches are small (a “really big crappie might be a pound or a pound and a half,” he said).

His solution is to fillet a bunch of fish (he can eat the fillets from 4 to 5 fish all by himself) and cook them in a baking dish with stuffing.

This recipe is for 12 to 15 fish.

Fillet your catch and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mince 3 stalks of celery and one large onion into a fine dice. Cook over medium heat in 1/2 stick of butter until softened, but don’t allow to carmelize.

Move to bowl, allow to cool and mix in 12 ounces of crabmeat.

Shake in 1 cup of Italian-s.tyle bread crumbs and 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan and blend.

Lay fish fillets in a single layer in buttered baking dish. Pat bread and crab mixture on top. If you have more fish, add another layer on top.

Cover with foil and cook for 12 to 15 minutes until the fish is nearly cooked through, then pull off foil and bake for 5 more minutes to get a slight crust on the stuffing.

Josh Sparks’ Only When Icy Beer Battered Fish

If he pulls in enough perch, Sparks sets himself up for a big fish fry with friends, using Shipyard’s seasonal Applehead beer (available December through March).

He issued this warning: “If I am cooking 6 or 7 fish, I do a lot of cooking but I don’t do a lot of measuring.” But we tinkered with amounts.

2 to 3 pounds of fish fillets, cut into whatever shape you choose.

Sift about 2 cups of flour into a bowl, add at least 1 tablespoon of coarse salt and several grinds of pepper, to taste.

Slowly pour in a 12-ounce bottle of Applehead beer, stirring with a fork as you go.

It shouldn’t be “like a dough,” Sparks said. “Kind of runny but thick enough to stick to the fish.”

Add a second bottle of beer as needed.

Drop in a deep fryer if you have one, if not, use a deep cast iron pan and heat enough oil to have at least an inch depth in the pan.

Use vegetable oil or your preference (but not olive oil).

Cook until crisp on one side, then flip carefully with tongs and cook the other side.

Lay on paper towels to absorb grease and serve with tartar sauce, ketchup or a squeeze of lemon, although Sparks says, “I don’t usually get that fancy.”

Videos

Additional Photos

Josh Sparks of New Gloucester fries his fresh catch – a brook trout pulled from the chilly waters of Lower Range Pond in Poland – on his Coleman stove. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

A brook trout that Josh Sparks caught and filleted on Lower Range Pond fries in a skillet on a stove that Sparks set up on the pond while still fishing. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

A chunk of butter and a sprinkle of seasonings sizzle in Sparks’ favorite cast iron skillet, above, along with a fillet of just-caught brook trout and, voila, dinner is served. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Josh Sparks holds the brook trout he caught on Lower Range Pond in Poland. On this day he also pulled in a yellow perch, which he claims, along with crappies, are the best eating. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Ice shacks went up early around Maine this season, thanks to December’s visit from the polar vortex, and have stayed put despite the recent January thaw. Driving by these frozen lakes or rivers, and spotting either these veritable villages of huts or someone like Sparks, hightailing it from hole to hole whenever one of the orange flags on his traps alerts him to a bite, the question arises, what happens to all the fish getting hauled out from those frigid chambers?

The answer is a multitude of dishes, ranging from chowders to baked whole fish stuffed with crab meat to salmon loaded with onions and cooked in foil on an open fire. There are fishermen and women for whom a fish cake, made with just about any species from Maine waters, is the perfect dinner.

In Caribou, Michelle Smith, a relative newcomer to ice fishing with five years experience, is so eager to explore new frontiers with her fish cuisine that she hardly ever repeats a dish. “To me, that’s part of the fun,” she said. “You hunt for the fish and then you see what you can do with it.” Often that involves cheese, because Smith loves cheese, and culinary rules like the ones Italians put forth (cheese and fish should never be together) don’t hold in her household.

This winter she started posting pictures of her creations on the popular website IceShanty.com, where her precise recipes and enticing shots of her suppers draw many admirers. (More typical of IceShanty.com recipes are terse instructions like these: “1 lb of W Perch fillets, 1 heaping tsp of potato flour, a dash of nutmeg, Place in food processer, Make patties and fry until brown.” Punctuation and spelling the cook’s own.)

Salmon is Smith’s favorite fish to work with, but she hasn’t caught any yet this year. Meanwhile Sparks, 38, admits he’s a little odd in that he’s not that interested in brook trout and he’d happily eat fish other fishermen aren’t excited about, like crappies (an invasive species), pickerel and yellow perch.

There are things he looks out for though: If he’s in the mood for a chowder sweetened with a little maple syrup, there’s nothing better than cusk, he said. Perch dipped in beer batter and fried is one of his favorites, which justifies that snowy day he and friends passed in early 2013, catching 100 fish in four hours while a blizzard blew around them. If there’s a fish he’s after, he’ll walk two hours to get to a good spot on a frozen lake, dragging a sled loaded with traps, an electric auger and other necessities.

SMELT SMOKED OVER APPLEWOOD

Sparks is open-minded about his catch but others are more focused.

Harpswell resident Ralph Merriman, who keeps not a shack but what his friends and family like to call “the cottage” (ceiling fans, heaters, windows) on the frozen bend of the Androscoggin River just below Topsham’s old Pejepscot Mill, is there primarily for the smelt. He’s got a secret recipe for a perfect fry (see sidebar), but ideally he ends up with 200 or so of the skinny fish that he takes home to smoke (see sidebar).

What he does with the smoked smelt involves some serious backyard alchemy, including a marinade made from his homemade peach preserves and eight hours over an applewood fire made with limbs from his orchard. The yield is a jerky like snack that his grown children like so much they’ve appointed themselves his designated catchers. “They bring me whatever they catch and ask me to smoke them,” Merriman said.

But what Sparks was making on Lower Range Pond, a simple fry in butter, is much more typical. He’s cooking it on a camp stove set on the ice for the ultimate frozen ambiance; if he were back home he might give the fish a dip in flour or cornmeal before dropping it in the pan. But the simple fry is what happens to 90 percent of the catch that gets eaten, by fishermen’s estimates. Leo Thiboutot, a Brunswick resident who has been ice fishing for nearly all of his 71 years, calls it the “classic” dish.

The variations are just about endless – Merriman’s fry secret is pancake mix – but the essential components remain the same: fish, heat, fat. “Some people use bacon grease, but for me, fish and butter just go together,” said Merriman.

The classic, as delivered on a paper plate minutes later by Sparks, was as fine as he promised, all crispy skin and tasty flesh that vanished in a few satisfying bites. But we wanted to know what happens to the rest of the fish that come out of Maine’s inland waters in winter. The pair of eagles watching from tall pines on the shore of a nearby island were testament to one answer; the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife encourages ice fishermen to toss any unwanted fish – and there are many species unloved for anything but sport. First and foremost is pike, liked for its size but loathed for its tendency to gobble everything in its path, including the natives. It often goes on to the ice for raptors and birds to enjoy. An eagle flew down while Sparks was bent over the pan and helped itself to the carcass of the brook trout he had filleted. The other eagle made do with a frozen yellow perch left behind by an earlier ice fishing expedition.

There are also plenty of humans in need of a good meal. To wit, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry’s Hunters for the Hungry Program announced last week that it is expanding the 18-year-old program from deer, moose and bear meat to include donations from the Crystal Lake (Jan. 25) and Sebago Lake ice fishing derbies (Feb. 15-16). That fish will be used by the Portland-based hunger relief agency Wayside Food Programs.

“We had heard that there is some waste going on,” said John Bott, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. “It means more people are getting fed.”

Wayside will be at each event with a truck, ready to put donations on ice, and Salt & Sea, a Portland fish dealer, will process it into fillets to distribute to food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters. Wayside works with more than 40 agencies throughout Cumberland County. Bott said it’s hard for the food banks to get fresh fish, so if all goes well this year, more derbies might be asked to participate in the future, Bott said. “We think it is exciting,” he said.

FISH TALES FLOW FREELY

Derbies are popular (anyone in the Sebago contest who can beat the 1958 state record by catching a togue (lake trout) bigger than 31 pounds 8 ounces wins $100,000) but for plenty of Mainers, ice fishing isn’t purely a competition. Even if they don’t want the fish, there are creative things to do with them.

Both Sparks and Toby Pennels, the chairman of the Sebago Lake derby, said they’d heard of fishermen who barter their catch for other food, like giving a load of lake fish to a lobsterman who will use it as bait in exchange for some fresh lobster.

“I don’t think that happens very often,” says John MacDonald, a spokesperson for the Maine Warden Service. He pointed out you’d have to catch a lot of fish to make it worthwhile for the lobsterman to trade, but there’s nothing illegal about it unless you went over your limit for the catch.

Another rumor, of fishermen trading less desirable fish like yellow perch to restaurants in exchange for food, gets into what MacDonald calls a complicated area. It’s fine if the restaurant owners are just eating the fish, but serving it would be illegal. Which explains why the rumor of a big catch of yellow perch netting ice fishermen a winter’s worth of Chinese takeout is so hard to nail down.

Other things that are hard: getting a recipe out of a fisherman. If you sit down with Leo Thiboutot and his younger brother Luke – and everyone should be so lucky – you’ll hear a lot of fish tales, like the time Leo caught a trout wearing a six-pack holder as a dorsal fin bracelet, or about the time Luke swears a bass sucked a hook into an orifice that wasn’t its mouth, but measurements and baking times they’re less specific about.

“I like to take a salmon, cut it open, stuff it with onion,” Luke began. Wait. Would that be chopped, minced, sliced? Luke shrugs. “They are not fussy,” Leo interjected.

But that lack of precision is because, like most of these fishermen, cooking their catch is an intuitive thing. “It’s a preference,” Leo said. “No right or wrong.”

For the brothers Thiboutot, who like to joke that they are the French Robinsons (of “Duck Dynasty”), most of those preferences have to do with how their mother made things. “Everything we do in the kitchen is our mother,” Leo said. At least once a year, they try to duplicate a magical dish she made whenever they and their father came home with a good catch. They believe it may have come out of an issue of Field & Stream, and could have Native American origins, but aren’t sure how to spell the dish. “Maybe Poisson a la Chaun-Chaun?” Leo speculated. When he says it, it sounds like Shush-Shawna.

Whatever it was, it caused all five Thiboutot children to rush to the dinner table, forks at the ready. “Basically it was a clam fry,” Luke said. Flour, eggs, salt and “baking powder to make the crust rise.” The type of fish doesn’t matter. “Whatever animal it was, it seemed like she knew what to do to make it taste good,” Leo said.

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